Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are a family of secreted endopeptidases expressed by neurons and glia. Regulated MMP activity contributes to physiological synaptic plasticity, while dysregulated activity can stimulate injury. Disentangling the role individual MMPs play in synaptic plasticity is difficult due to overlapping structure and function as well as cell-type specific expression. Here, ...

the cross-border symposium on hepatitis c, entitled “why treating now?” was held on 15th may 2013 during the 5th international tehran hepatitis congress. the present report summarizing communicated insights during this symposium is intended to help health care providers to make well-informed decisions when treating patients with chronic hepatitis c (chc). since today’s evolving science of hepat...

background: determination of digestive enzymes activity would provide critical information in the design of appropriate diet. sobaity, sparidentex hasta is found in the persian gulf and  cultured in countries adjacent to it. objectives: this study investigated proteolytic, amylase and lipase activities in the intestine of sparidentex hasta captured from the  persian gulf. methods: 60 immature s...

The clearance of cytomegalovirus viraemia in HIV-1-infected patients may partly result from the inhibition of cytomegalovirus protease by HIV-1 protease inhibitors contained in highly active antiretroviral therapy. We used a computational method to calculate the binding affinity of six HIV-1 protease inhibitors to cytomegalovirus protease based on its X-ray crystallography structure. The calcul...

Designing HIV-1 protease inhibitors that overcome drug-resistance is still a challenging task. In this study, four clinical isolates of multi-drug resistant HIV-1 proteases that exhibit resistance to all the US FDA-approved HIV-1 protease inhibitors and also reduce the substrate recognition ability were examined. A multi-drug resistant HIV-1 protease isolate, MDR 769, was co-crystallized with t...